For senior officers and senior NCOs retiring with a larger pension, the instinct is often to look at high-end retirement communities in expensive coastal or resort markets. The better play for most retirees in that position is the opposite: use that stronger pension in a genuinely low-cost market, where it buys a noticeably higher standard of living — larger homes, better amenities, more discretionary income — than the same pension would in a high-cost area.
This is the same math that makes some overseas destinations attractive (a strong dollar-equivalent income stretching further), applied domestically instead: pick a market with low housing costs and favorable tax treatment, and a comfortable pension goes considerably further without any of the overseas tradeoffs around healthcare access and distance from family.
Relocating to Arkansas specifically? See our Arkansas relocation guides.